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00:00Jones and Keefe, you're on WEEI. It's Thursday, which means it's time to talk to the Razor.
00:07Andrew Raycroft of Nessun, he joins us here on WEEI. What's up Razor?
00:13Good morning, gentlemen. Not much. All good.
00:16What's going on with your Bruins? Not exactly a great performance the other night.
00:21Jim Montgomery's job security called into question some of the offseason moves.
00:27How are we feeling about the Bruins to start the year?
00:29It certainly hasn't been smooth sailing like the 10-0 starts we've seen the last couple of years.
00:36I think the NHL, unlike probably all the other major sports, the start of the season has more premium.
00:46I think NHL teams know if they get off to a good start, it's really hard to recover points.
00:53I think the Bruins have put a lot of pressure on themselves to have a good start.
00:56The fact that they're 500 is far from disastrous. It just doesn't feel like it has the last couple of years.
01:04Of course, there's a few points that I'm sure we'll get to that they're trying to work through and clean up as soon as possible.
01:11What's going on with Marchand and Montgomery?
01:16I don't think there's anything going on personally there.
01:19Monty is an emotional coach. In that situation, on the road with a 1-0 lead, he didn't like the turnover and he let Brad know.
01:29I think Brad, as the leader of the team, as a guy who's been here for 14 years now, understands that he's just like any other player.
01:40I've never heard that there's an issue personally in any way.
01:47I think Monty was upset with a player who made a bad turnover and I'm sure everyone's okay with that.
01:53The visual though the other night, I guess I have less of a concern personally about Monty giving him a tap on the shoulder pads or whatever it was.
02:01Or a shove, if you want to call it that.
02:03But Marchand looked like a player just tuning his coach out.
02:07That's how it looked to me. It looked like Marchand couldn't be bothered and couldn't care less.
02:12So that to me just speaks to or looks like a coach tuning a player out.
02:19I saw it as a guy who has played a long time, probably going to be a Hall of Famer, frustrated with himself.
02:28Guys, you don't talk back to the coach, especially in that situation.
02:35I can absolutely 100% assure you, and I don't know, I wasn't on the road trip.
02:41But I have full confidence that they have had a conversation about the incident.
02:45And talked about it and smoothed it over.
02:48And like all teams and coaches and players, especially ones that have the status that Brad does.
02:54You talk through these things after the heat of the moment's gone.
02:58Again, I'm sure it's water under the bridge at this point.
03:01We've seen Montgomery fired up before.
03:03That did seem a little bit different.
03:05I'm just wondering, is it the lack of a contract after this year?
03:09Do you think that would affect Montgomery?
03:11I know the team is off to a slow start, but is it sort of a little extra frustration?
03:15Because he knows that for his job status, he needs to turn things around this season.
03:22I think it's more just where the team is.
03:24They haven't really played great.
03:26And they're .500, which is completely fine.
03:29Everyone else in the division is essentially .500.
03:32There's a couple of teams that have run out .501.
03:35But the reality is most of the league is .500 right now.
03:38Everyone's trying to figure who they are and what they are and get into the season.
03:42It's still October 24th or wherever we're at right now.
03:45So I think his frustration is coming from maybe the lack of scoring.
03:50And the fact that they haven't really got to their game as four lines.
03:56They've had a couple lines that they're really trying to figure out.
03:58They're moving a lot of pieces.
03:59And that can stress a coach out.
04:02And for me, that's kind of where I look.
04:06I think he just wants a lot of expectation on this team.
04:10And they understand how important starts to the NHL season are.
04:13And the sooner you get to your process and the Bruins haven't done that,
04:17there's a little frustration there.
04:19Andrew Raycroft and Nesson here on Jones & Keefe on WEI.
04:22Jones is every Thursday at 1130.
04:25How do you feel about lame duck coaches in general?
04:28You've been in dressing rooms.
04:30You've been on teams around the league.
04:33How do you feel about the lame duck coach in general?
04:36Because as much as the Bruins say they want to keep Jim Montgomery,
04:39he doesn't have a contract yet.
04:41No, he doesn't.
04:43I don't think the players – I've never thought about it.
04:46I mean, thinking back to my career,
04:50I don't think I ever knew what my coach's contract situation was.
04:54Quite frankly, I didn't care.
04:57I don't think the players care in any way whatsoever.
05:00Professional sports is really hard, right?
05:03You start worrying about the coach's contract.
05:08But it's not just his contract, though, right?
05:11Is he going to be here?
05:13How hard am I going to play for this guy if he's going to be gone anyway?
05:16It's less about his contract and what he's being paid and more about,
05:19how much longer am I playing for this guy?
05:21How much longer do I need to listen to him?
05:24Yeah, no, again, I never played for a coach.
05:29I played to feed my family and stay in the league.
05:33So I understand that it's fun to make a distraction out of it.
05:38And I'm sure deep down somewhere Monty thinks about it.
05:41And I'm sure the Bruins, Don Sweeney and Cam have talked about it as well deep down.
05:45But the reality is there's games every other night and you got to find a way.
05:49So as a player, I don't think you're thinking about, you know,
05:53what their coach is or what their contract situation is.
05:56It's about, all right, how do I play better?
05:58How do I get on the score sheet? How does our team win?
06:00How does our power play get better?
06:02How do we break out of our zone better?
06:04And how do we beat the Dallas Stars tonight?
06:06I really, I know it's not a fun, like, talk radio answer,
06:09but it really is the truth when you get inside the room.
06:13What do you think of some of the new line changes from the last game
06:16and what looks like it'll probably be tonight as well?
06:19Is that a top line of Marsha and Lindholm-Posternak one that you like?
06:22Or would you prefer to break those guys up?
06:25No, I like it right now. I think I want to see, you know,
06:29I want to see some more offense.
06:31I think it kind of moving Zaka to the second line
06:34and having him in the middle with Matty Potts,
06:36I think that could open up a little creativity, a little more offense.
06:40I think that moving Brad to that top line might actually deepen
06:45some of the offense throughout the line.
06:48Again, kind of to that front, like something's got to click.
06:51Other than the fourth line, something's got to click here.
06:54And I think, again, that's where a lot of, I think,
06:57the frustration's coming from.
06:59And hopefully the lines that we see tonight, you know,
07:02get a little bit of a spark for both the individuals
07:05and the offensive group together.
07:08Independent of Marsha and then Montgomery the other night,
07:11how has he looked to you, Brad Marsha on the ice?
07:15He looks like a guy who didn't start training until middle of August.
07:19Looks like a guy who's trying to find his timing,
07:22trying to, you know, settle the puck at times,
07:25not really bouncing his way, and he's just trying to work through it.
07:28Never is compete or hard work or effort questioned with Brad Marsha,
07:35but I think he looks like a guy who typically works out all summer,
07:39typically gets on the ice all summer and had to delay that this year.
07:42So, again, I wasn't expecting anything out of Brad
07:45until, you know, middle of November, to be quite honest.
07:48Just in how hard it is to ramp up and get going again
07:52after having three surgeries in the offseason.
07:54What about Swayman to this point?
07:56He's played five of the seven games.
07:58How do you think overall he's looked?
08:00He was awesome.
08:01Those last two games, especially the game in Utah,
08:04could have been, you know, that could have easily been a no-point night
08:08and a 3-4 nothing loss.
08:10I think, you know, you talk about him and the holdout, of course,
08:14the storyline and worrying about his start,
08:16and he's been the exact opposite
08:18and proven why they wanted to get him signed
08:21and they want him on an eight-year deal.
08:23So I think he's been great despite losing 4-0 on the road,
08:26and he's only going to continue to get better timing
08:30and feel more comfortable.
08:32So it's a big game for the Bruins tonight.
08:34You get the Dallas Stars, and you are part of an alternate broadcast,
08:38is that right, with Tuca and Bergeron?
08:40How about this?
08:42Yeah, we got a big night over at Nets and in the studio,
08:45so we've got unobstructed views that's piggybacking off
08:49what the Red Sox and Nets did in the baseball season,
08:52and we got the big heavyweights.
08:55We got Tuca, and we somehow convinced Patrice Bergeron
08:59to sit on the couch with me for a game as well.
09:01So it's going to be fun.
09:03I've got some pressure on me to kind of move things around.
09:07Yeah, I didn't want to point that out,
09:10but I feel like there's a ton of pressure on you.
09:12I mean, you're the media guy.
09:14The two former players we know for being players.
09:16You were a player as well, but you've been in this media thing
09:18a long time now, so I think when that red light turns on,
09:22there might be crickets from those two.
09:24You're going to have to move this thing along a little bit.
09:27I know, I know.
09:28And they keep telling me, you know, it'll go.
09:30You just have to talk.
09:32But I'm feeling the heat, so maybe like some of the Bruins players
09:36or coaches, I'm feeling the heat tonight,
09:38and I've got to get a good pregame nap in this afternoon to be ready.
09:41Oh, yeah, get that going.
09:42That's important to be well-rested.
09:44Have you, like, I don't know,
09:47watched any of the other alternate broadcasts?
09:49Like have you –
09:51A little inspiration from the Manning cast.
09:53Yeah, exactly.
09:54Bellicheck on the Manning cast.
09:55Yeah, you mentioned Carabas in the unobstructed views.
09:57Like have you dabbled in any of that?
09:59Yeah, I checked out the unobstructed one, Nesson and Carabas,
10:04but I do typically flip over on a Monday night to the Manning cast
10:08for a quarter or for ten minutes.
10:10The good news is we're all in the same room.
10:13That's going to be a big difference rather than that Zoom on the Manning cast.
10:17So the three of us are there.
10:19We're going to have a guest tonight in the second period.
10:21He's coming in to sit on the couch as well.
10:23Another Daily Cup winning player.
10:25Mystery guest.
10:26Yeah, I don't know if it is or not,
10:28but I'll just keep it mystery for the sake of this phone call.
10:31How about just between us, just me, you, Keith, and Rachel.
10:34I'm already watching.
10:35You don't need to tease me anymore.
10:36I'm already watching.
10:39I think McQuaid is going to come in.
10:41I think Quader's coming in on the couch for a little bit.
10:44Darth Quader.
10:46Darth Quader could be in the mix.
10:50Again, we'll be live and in person together,
10:53so I'm hopeful that that adds to our chemistry rather than Zooming in.
10:58I love it.
10:59Beats the new play-by-play guy.
11:01But that's really not important.
11:04I am excited to watch this, though.
11:06I think this will be a good breakdown with these guys.
11:08I'm excited.
11:09I'm glad.
11:10Thanks for being excited and pass on the word,
11:13and we'll try and do a good job.
11:15If you see the fear in my eyes, you'll know why.
11:18Get a commercial.
11:20If you're looking for talking points,
11:22if you're looking for talking points, it's just like fire Montgomery.
11:25Hot seat Montgomery.
11:28Marjan hates the coach.
11:30Hey, Tuca, how come you never won anything?
11:33Hey, Patrice, how come the team went further without you last year?
11:36That sort of stuff.
11:37If you're just looking for talking points, I got you.
11:39Yeah, that's the best way for me to be one and done.
11:43That would be perfect.
11:44I won't have to worry about the next one.
11:46That's true.
11:47No more pressure after that.
11:49Well, Razor, we appreciate the time.
11:50We'll talk to you next week.
11:51You got it, guys.
11:53All right, thanks.
11:54So, yeah, Nessun Plus and Nessun 360.
11:57You can watch the alt cast.